Fanart: Jetstream Sam
A week back I wrote a lengthy entry that LJ promptly ate about my unlikely but overwhelming love for Metal Gear Rising's Jetstream Sam. It's too bad because it would have prepared you a little for this entry, but it's gone so I'll try to explain it real quick.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a ridiculous video game about a cyborg ninja and its core gameplay is slicing robots and cyborgs into very very small pieces with a sword. Jetstream Sam is a villain -- not even the final boss, mind -- a Brazilian samurai with a smarmy attitude and an armour that accentuates his thighs and butt to a mind-blowing degree. In the entire game Sam only has about three important cutscenes (plus a DLC game that was pretty awful).
And I am so smitten with him it's embarrassing.
Oh and his armour also has these weird plastic bits that cover his ears.
I have several ideas for fanart I want to make about Jetstream Sam, but instead of just jumping straight into it like I usually do, I decided I wanted to figure out Sam's face first.
I used some references and sketched his dumb handsome face over and over and over again, and eventually I discovered that wow, I am so sick of drawing Sam's intricate little ear things. And that's the genesis for this.
I have a terrible sense of humour. I'm aware.
[If you're dying to know what the heck those ACTUALLY are, they flip down to form a hilariously inadequate protective shield that covers the lower half of his face. You know, for those sword fights where you really need to protect your mouth??]
Just so we're clear, that first one is probably the best I'll ever be able to draw him. At least it helped me figure out some guidelines for Sam's face. Basically, it's 80% nose, the rest is mainly chin. Add scars, ponytail and stubble. Bam.
Once upon a time I hit a point where I thought "my art is terrible anyway, I should only ever use it to tell corny, low-effort jokes", and it's really through these last two years I've made an effort to tell myself "no you know what, I'm allowed to attempt to draw genuine things, and even if I don't pull it off it's good practice". And now this; "Okay but I'm still allowed to goof off and have fun drawing too, though".
And the neat thing is that I realized that if I showed even these corny doodles to myself five years ago, I would actually notice my art skills had improved considerably. So thank you, dumb video game samurai that inspired me to draw him as Princess Leia.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a ridiculous video game about a cyborg ninja and its core gameplay is slicing robots and cyborgs into very very small pieces with a sword. Jetstream Sam is a villain -- not even the final boss, mind -- a Brazilian samurai with a smarmy attitude and an armour that accentuates his thighs and butt to a mind-blowing degree. In the entire game Sam only has about three important cutscenes (plus a DLC game that was pretty awful).
And I am so smitten with him it's embarrassing.
Oh and his armour also has these weird plastic bits that cover his ears.
I have several ideas for fanart I want to make about Jetstream Sam, but instead of just jumping straight into it like I usually do, I decided I wanted to figure out Sam's face first.
I used some references and sketched his dumb handsome face over and over and over again, and eventually I discovered that wow, I am so sick of drawing Sam's intricate little ear things. And that's the genesis for this.
I have a terrible sense of humour. I'm aware.
[If you're dying to know what the heck those ACTUALLY are, they flip down to form a hilariously inadequate protective shield that covers the lower half of his face. You know, for those sword fights where you really need to protect your mouth??]
Just so we're clear, that first one is probably the best I'll ever be able to draw him. At least it helped me figure out some guidelines for Sam's face. Basically, it's 80% nose, the rest is mainly chin. Add scars, ponytail and stubble. Bam.
Once upon a time I hit a point where I thought "my art is terrible anyway, I should only ever use it to tell corny, low-effort jokes", and it's really through these last two years I've made an effort to tell myself "no you know what, I'm allowed to attempt to draw genuine things, and even if I don't pull it off it's good practice". And now this; "Okay but I'm still allowed to goof off and have fun drawing too, though".
And the neat thing is that I realized that if I showed even these corny doodles to myself five years ago, I would actually notice my art skills had improved considerably. So thank you, dumb video game samurai that inspired me to draw him as Princess Leia.